This invention relates to chemical lasers. More particularly, this invention concerns itself with continuous wave or repetitively pulsed chain chemical lasers and to a system for generating a fluorine reactant material for use therewith.
Laser systems that utilize a gaseous medium to generate a lasing action by means of a chemical reaction are well known. In general, the requisite population inversion of the gaseous medium is effected by the diffusion of a first gaseous reactant material, such as hydrogen or deuterium, into a second gaseous material such as fluorine. The two reactant gases react chemically to provide a flow of a vibrationally excited molecular gaseous product with the necessary population inversion and lifetime to create a lasing action. The vibrationally excited gas is then allowed to flow into a resonant cavity where lasing takes place. These lasers have proven highly successful for a number of applications and possess an exceedingly high military potential.
However, the use of molecular fluorine as a reactant material presents a serious problem because of the immense storage and handling hazards associated with its use. Its toxic nature also precludes its uses, especially for airborne military uses. On the other hand, there are very strong technical reasons, such as high specific efficiency, large power operation and excellent atmospheric transmission characteristics, which mandate the use of fluorine as a chemical laser reactant. As a result, a considerable research effort has been expended in an attempt to exploit the high military potential of the HF/DF chemical laser. The need for developing a fluorine generating system arose directly from the need to resolve the safety problems associated with fluorine handling which, in turn, lead to the development of the present invention.